La Go what? I never heard about this island, before my partner told me about it and that he would love a mini-vaction there. This was also my first ever pre-arragend trip I ever did! I was quite hesitant in the beginning since I always plan my trips all by myself and I’m also a big fan of roadtrips and camping which is super spontaneous and flexible. But I gave it a try, a short article about the differences of the two forms of travelling/taking a vacation will follow soon 😛
Who loves this island?
Definitely people who seek a chilled and relaxed atmosphere, who love to hike, do dolphin & whale tours, mountainbike or swim in a bit wilder water (After all it’s the Atlantic not the chill Mediterranean sea) The island is quite small and easily accesible with a rented car, there are many highlights within a few minutes driving. I loved the diversity of the island- dry, desert like atmosphere and nature: palm trees, cactuses but also tropical vegetation like mango trees, banana trees and avocado trees grow here and in the middle of the island is a super humid and foggy forest. EAT THE BANANAS AND AVOCADOS- they grow here and taste like heaven <3
How do you get there?
Getting to the island is a bit more complicated: You take a plane to the airport Tenerife South, catch a bus to the harbour (approx. 20 min) and get on a ferry (approx. 50 min) to La Gomera. If you have to wait at the harbour you can easily walk to a nice promenade with lots of restaurants, shops and a beach if you fancy a swim. There are two ferry providers, Naviera Armas and Fred Olsen.
1. Garajonay National Park
The drive to the national park is already stunning: you pass diverse landscapes from really dry, a landscape where the ground is coverd in yellow flowers and eventually the foggy treetops. There are plenty of hiking routes displayed on information stands at the park itself, the internet or several maps. Choose the one that matches your level of fitness. I recommend Michal’s website which is all about hiking and plenty of tracks you could take on the island (why did I only find this website now? :()
If you want to get a glimpse of the forest only, go to the restaurant which is in the middle of the forest and follow the shortest indicated chilled walk. NOTE: We hiked the La Laguna Grande hike halfway which I cannot recommend. It starts off beautiful, but it guides you through the part of the forest which was severly burned in a fire a few years ago. There you see many dead trees not the lush, green ones. It’s still a nice hike and I heard that when you continue you reach a view point which is all lush and amazing again, so if you try it out please let me know 🙂
2. Valle Gran Rey
When you are on the island you should visit this cute small town which is surrounded by enourmous mountains. There are plenty of chill and relaxed people. There are two beaches (black sand) and a little promenade with cafés and restaurants. I loved the beach “Playa del Ingles”, its quite a dramatic one: black sand, big waves and closed off with a huge mountain. Please be cautious when you would like to go for a swim: they warn you about the strong streams, people lost their lives here, also there are no safeguards at the beach.
3. Discover the resevoirs
We met an amazingly nice couple at the hotel we stayed in and they invited us to explore the tiny capital town (they had a car) and afterwards we drove to three resevoir lakes. Unfortunately we didn’t find a walking path all the way down to them, but already from the top they looked fabulous and you could see bananas, mangos and avocados as well as grapes growing. If you want to find them as well, literally get a physical map (or google maps:P) and go find them 🙂 There are only few roads on the entire island and it’s pretty straightforward.
